Weaving tufted fabric



March 5,1940. J MOORE ET AL wmvmc 'wmm FABRIC 5 sheets-sheet 1 FiledDec. 27, 1957 pm an 1i Even T02 5;

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March 5, 1940. J, H. MOORE ET AL 2,192,410

' WEAVING TUFTED-FABRIC v Filed Dec. 27, 1937 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 March 5,1940. J. H. MOORE ET AL WEAVING TUFTED FABRIC 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Ma rch 5,1940. J, MOORE ET AL 2,192,410

' WEAVING TUFTED FABRIC Filed Dec. 2'7, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 5' PatentedMar. 1940 f wnsvnsor TUFIED ranarc John Henry Moore, Methuen, CharlesEdward Jewett, North Andover, and Boy Edwin Burdett, Lawrence, Massassignors to Pacific Mills,

' Latzrence, Man, a corporation of Massachu- Application December 27,1937, SeI'IalNo. 181,778

. Q 1 6- Claims. This invention relates to the production .of

tufted woven fabric and particularly to the cutting of the floating.threads on the fabric to permit their: formation into tufts or the like.

I In the production of ,a tufted woven fabric threads of a characterintended to form the tufts are woven into thefabric with either the warpor the filling threads and are floated for a considerable distance onthe surface of the fabric. The floating threads are then cut and giventhe proper finish to produce the desired tufted eflect.

Heretoforetheoperation of cutting the floating threadshas been separatefrom the. weaving process and difficult and expensive to perform becauseof the diiiiculty of severing the floating threads with the accuracyrequired. a An object of the present invention is to sever the floatingthreads as a part of the weaving operation.

A further object. of the invention is the. Provision of means associatedwith the loom which operates automatically to sever the floating threadsafter they have been incorporated in the fabric before the .fabric iswound ontothe take-up roll.

Whenthe floating threads are woven into" the fabric with the flllingthreads the cutting of the floating threadsis accomplished by aseries ofstationary knives which 'are disposed close to the upper face of themoving web and pass under the floating threads and thereby sever them bythe movement of the web. When the floating threads are woven in with thewarp threads the series of knives are periodically reciprocated to moveunder the floating threads to sever. them, the movement of the knivesbeing effected under control of the pattern chain or the equivalent.Such constructions comprise further objects of the invention. g v

Ordinarily the woven fabric advances with each lay of a filling threadand when the floating threads are woven with the fllling threads therewill be unwoven sections underlying the floating threads. Hence anotherobject of the invention is in the provision of means for stopping theadvance of the fabric during the laying of the floating threads so thatthe fabricis closed under the floating threads.

A further object of the invention is in the provision of stop mechanismfor the take-up roll rendered operative to disable the take-up rollconcurrently with the service positioning of. the floating threadshuttle and being operative to again start the take-up of the fabricconcurrently with the moving of the floating thread shuttle out ofservice position.

A further object of the invention is generally to improve upon theweaving of tufted woven fabrics and mechanisms for severing the floatingthreads.

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a loom embodying the present inventionand wherein the floating I threads are woven in the fabric with thefiller threads.

Fig. 2 is a detafl illustrating the mechanism controlling the operationoi the web take-up;

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail taken generally along line 3-4 of Fig. 1,and illustrating the relative position ofa thread-cutting knife withrespect to the breast beam and the take-up mechanism.

Fig, 4 is a plan view of a knife.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the knife of Fig. 3 and illustrating themanner in which threads are moved onto-the knife.

Fig. 6 is a plan detail of a section of fabric illustrating the severedfloating threads.

Fig. 7 is a plan view partly broken away-of a loom wherein the floatingthreads are woven in the fabric with the warp threads.

Fig. 8 is a front end detail of the loom of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a front elevation of a knife for severing the floating warpthreads.

Fig. 10 is a side elevation of the knife 01' Figs. 8 and 9, andillustrating the manner in which the knife passes under and in contactwith the floating threads.

In the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 through 5 the tuft-forming orfloating threads are woven in the fabric with the fllling threads.

The loom for the purpose is more or less the usual loom having theharnesses l2 operated by the usual. Jack levers II which arereciprocated by the head mechanism I6 under control of the pattern chainIS. The loom is of the multiple shuttle tyn having the plural shuttlescontained in a carrier 2 ll which is selectively raised and lowered tomove the shuttles .into active position by a chain 22 controlled by asecond pattern chain 24. The woven fabric passes over a breast beam 26and around and between take-up rolls 28 and 30, see Figs. 1-, and 3, andis wound upon a winding shaft I2. r I

The aforesaid rolls 28, and 32 are driven by means including a worm gear3,4 and a worm 36 fixed to a drive shaft 38 extended longitudinally ofthe machine at oneside thereof. The shaft 28 at the side end of the loomis connected through pinion gears 40 'with a short shaft havthey floatining a bevel gear 42 flxed thereon and driven through the take-upreversing mechanism which includes a pair of bevel gears 48 and to asleeve 50slidable axially on but keyed for con- 51 has a pin 60 that isdisposed under a shoulder 62 of the lower gear 48 whereby to .enablethesleeve to be raised to disengage thev upper sleevegear 46 from thebevel gear 42 and to bring the lower sleeve gear 48 .into engagementwith said bevel gear to effect a reversal of'rnovement of the web in theusual manner.

When the floating threads are woven into the fabric withthe fillingthreads it is desirable to arrest the advance of the woven fabric duringthe introduction ofthe floatingthreads so that the fabric will present awoven appearance under the floating thread sections. For this purposethe floating thread preferably is contained in the lowermost shuttle andthe position of the shuttle carrier is utilized to operate the reversemechanism to render inoperative the take-up mechanism. g

For this purpose thelower end part of the sleeve 50 below the reversingarm 51 carries a collar 64, which has a projecting pin 66 engaged with.an arm 68, fixed to a rod 10 which is ver- ,tically and axially movablein guides I2 and so arranged that upwardmovement of the rod act- I ingthrough the pin 66 and collar 64 raises the sleeve 50 to disconnect theupper sleeve gear 46 from the gear 42, the movement, however, beinginsufficient to move the lower sleeve gear 48 into engagement with thegear 42. The rod at its upper end part has an arm I4 provided with aprojecting pin I6 that overlies a laterally projecting roller I8 of apivoted filling indicating lever connected through a strap 82 with theshuttle carrier chain 22. r The lever 00 thus rises I and the shaft I0when the shuttle carrier is The floating flller threads 84, Figs. 1. aand 6.

span a considerable number of warp threads on the top face of thefabrics They also underlie a considerable number of warp threads;Preferably the underlying floating threads vare caught to the wovenfabric, or interwoven with two or threewarp threads as indicated at 86,midway between the surface floating threads so as to anchor the, threadsto the fabric after they are severed. The floating threads can beinterwovenwith the fabric in'any desired pattern as determled by thesetting of the pattern chain I8 to form a regular repeated pattern.

In accordance with the present invention mechanism is provided forautomatically severing the floating threads accurately either in themiddle thereof or in some other-location as determined by the-nature ofthe; tufts ordesign desired. The severing mechanism comprises ,a

bar 08 extended horizontally in front of and close to the vertical. passof the web between the breastbeam 26 and the take-up roll 28, the barbeing fixed at its ends in supporting. brackets attached to the breastbeam beyond the selvage edges of the web.

"The bar 88 carries a plurality of cutter elements each'comprisin'g afeeler rod 92, see especially Figs. 4 and 5, which is inclined upwardlyand rearwardly toward the fabric and is longitudinally adjustbly securedby a set screw 04 in a chordal passage in a collar or knife holder 96slidably mounted on the bar 88 and fixed thereto in any angular andaxial adjustment thereo. by a set screw 98. The feeler rod 92 isflattened at its forward end to provide a thin edge I00 and a fiatunder-surface I02 whichrides upon or close to theface of the fabric.The-feeler rod behind the edge I00 is provided with an upstanding thinknife bl'ade I04 having a sharp inclined edge I06. With this arrangementas the web passes downwardly the floating threads 84 pass over the edgeI00 and onto the feeler rod 92 and are raised into loop-formation-andmove upwardly on the rod and onto the knife edge I06 by which they. aresevered. Fig. 6 illustrates a section of the web with the severedfloating threads 64. There are as many cutting elements as there arebunches of floating threads distributed crosswise of the'fabric. Byproperly positioning the cutting elements-lengthwise of the supportingbar 08 the bunches of floating threads can be severed accuratelywherever desired.

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 7 through 9, the floatingthreads are woven in the fabric with the warp threads, the floatingthreads being laid in with certain of the warp threads. That is to say,a floating thread is superposed over a regular warp thread so that thefloating threads do not displace any warp threads. With ple shuttles maybe employed where necessary to produce a desired pattern or character ofwoven fabric. Multiple shuttles, however, are not required to producethe tufted fabric. With this modification the arrangement of thefloating sections of the floating threads can be anything desired as,for instance, the same as illustrated in Fig. l, where the floatingsections are arranged in rows and the sections in one row are staggeredwith respect to the sections in the next row. The cutting mechanism forthe floating [sections in this modification comprises a pair of parallelbars H0 and H2 disposed above the horizontal pass of the woven fabric onthe breast beam I I4. Each bar carries a plurality of cutting elements.Each cutting element comprises a feeler rod II6 having a horizontal partH8 and. a vertical part or shank I20. The horizontal part rides upon orclose to the exposed face of the fabric and has a tapered end face I22terminated in an edge I 24 which can pass under the floating sectionsI26.- A thin knife blade I26 arsenic is flxed to the feeler rod and hasan inclined cutting edge I30 merging into the inclined face I22 of thefeeler rod. In this modification, since the floating threads lieparallel with the direction of movement of the fabric, the cuttermechanism,

is adapted to be reciprocate'd at right angles to the line of fabricmovement to sever the floating threads. Thus the horizontal section ofthe feeler rod is moved under the floating threads which raises theminto loop form' and carries them onto the knife where they are severed.

The vertical part or shank I of the feeler rod is secured in avertically and angularly adjustable manner by a set screw I32 in achordal passage of a supporting collar I84 which is angularly adjustableand axially movable on one or another of the bars IIII, I I2 and isclamped in any adiustedposition on the bar by the set screw I 36. Thebars are provided with as many cutter elements as there are floatingsections to the I46 and serve to guide the cutter elements forreciprocating movement.

The cutter elements are reciprocated in timed relation to the webmovement by means of a bell crank lever I48 pivoted at I50 to the frameand having one arm connected through a link I52 with an end frame I40.The other arm of the bell crank lever is connected through a safetyspring I 54 with a flexible strap or cable I 56 which passes'aroundsheaves I58 and ISO and is connected to a jack lever I62, thereciprocation of which is under control of a pattern chain I65.

The pattern chain is provided with a pair of projecting studs I88 andI88 of which the stud I66 effects the reciprocation of the jack lever ina direction to sever the floating strands and the stud I68 acts to holdthe cutting elements for a short time in their forward cutting positionto more perfectly execute the complete cut ting of the floating strands.i'he' jack lever moves automatically to its initial position-when freefrom control by the studs. A tensile spring I'III connected with the endframes I42 and with a stationary part of the loom serves to effect theretraction of the cutting elements.

With both mechanisms above described the floating sections may be cutcapable of being ric which includes the steps of weaving the fab-' ricwith floating filler threads interposed between the regular flllingthreads, stopping the take-up of the fabric during the introduction ofthe floating threads, and severing the floating sections of the floatingthreads during the weaving operation.

2. The process of producing. tufted woven fabric which includes thesteps of weaving the fabric with warp and flller threads, at timesinserting a plurality of floating threads between consecutive fillingthreads, interweaving the floating threads with selected warp threadswhile the fabric is stationary to bunch the floating threads, andsevering the floating sections of the floating threads during theprogress of weaving.

3. In a loom for weaving tufted fabric comprising fabric take-upmechanism, a plurality of shuttles one containing a floating thread,means responsive to the service position of the floating thread shuttlefor stopping the operation of said take-up mechanism, means for weavingthe float.- ing thread into the fabric to form floating thread sectionson a face thereof while the take-up mechanism is inoperative, and aplurality of cutter elements confronting a face of the woven fabricadapted to be engaged by the floating .thread sections to out saidsections as the fabric advances.

4. In a loom for weaving tufted fabric, a fabric take-up mechanism,reversing mechanism for the take-up mechanism, a plurality of shuttlesone containing a floating thread, means for weaving the floating threadinto the fabric to form floating sections on a face thereof, meansresponsive to the service positioning of said floating thread shuttlefor conditioning said reversing mechanism to stop the operation of saidtake-up mechanism, and cutter elements located over the woven fabric forcutting the floating thread sections.

5. In a loom for weaving tufted fabric, take-up mechanism for the woven'fabric, reversing mechanism for the take-up mechanism, a reversing armfor controlling said reversing mechanism, a plurality of shuttles onecontaining a" floating thread, means for weaving the floating threadinto the fabric to form floating sections on one face of the fabric,means responsive to the active position of the floating thread shuttlefor effecting operation of said reversing mechanism indeshuttles onecontaining a, floating thread, means shuttle chain movable to positionthe shuttles.

into active and inactive positions, means responsive to the movement ofsaid chain into a position rendering said filling thread shuttle activeto effect control of said reversing mechanism to stop said take-upmechanism, and'cutter elements located over the wovenfabric for cuttingthe floating thread sections.

JOHN Y MOORE.

CES EDWARD EOY EDWIN BURDETI.

